On the Record | Victory — Keep a ‘Clean Break’ at the Ready

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Victory — Keep a “Clean Break” at the Ready’:

Will it be “déjà vu all over again?” Not since June 23, 2016, have the prospects for Britain’s exit from the European Union looked so bright. Unlike the euphoria of that day, however, Brexiteers have endured three years of dither and delay that dampen effusions of enthusiasm. Older, and wiser, are they.

Less naïve and trusting, too. Let us hope this will be the only occasion for quoting Yogi Berra; let the litany of attempts to frustrate the people’s will — by Remainer MPs, Brussels mandarins, and the chattering classes — be ended. New Parliament. New Government. New Year. And a fresh start for British independence.

Broad brushstrokes are discernable on the political canvas. With at least 364 seats in a 650-seat House of Commons, Conservatives will again form government, this one with a projected 39-seat majority (totaling 365 seats), while the Labour party lost 59 seats from its results in 2017, winning only 203 — worsting Michael Foot’s record in 1983 by 6 seats.

Jeremy Corbyn announced he will not contest another election at Labour’s head. Spouting socialism as the people’s panacea has a debilitating effect upon one’s sense of reality, and nowhere is this more evident than in Labour’s rationale for its stunning upset. “Brexit done us in,” bemoan party stalwarts who point to their manifesto promise of a second referendum and their determination to vote “Remain.”

Others point to Mr. Corbyn’s autocratic leadership style that intimidated colleagues, stifled dissent, and saw him in disastrous relationships with terrorist sympathizers and anti-Semites. Amazingly, few Labourites make the connection between their leader and his Brexit policy, absolving themselves of all responsibility for an atrocious party operation.

The Scottish National Party was the other big winner in the election (returning 48 MPs to Westminster), arguably gaining more political advantage than the Tories. SNP probably won on its anti-Brexit message. More doubtful is whether all its voters equally cast ballots for Scottish independence. With such a geographic-specific electorate, the Scottish Nationals may share characteristics with Canada’s separatist Bloc Québécois: enjoying support less for its secessionist credentials than for concessions it can wrestle from the national government.

Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party were shut-out from Parliament. The strategy to stand-down candidates against Conservative incumbents helped secure Tory success; whether it was a benefit or a curse to Conservative fortunes in those seats it did contest — either aiding or blocking Labour challengers — probably a wash. Like prophets of old, Mr. Farage had a mission — to bring Brexit to the people and, with independence in sight, he passes from the front lines of active politics.

Boris Johnson returns to Downing Street for a good night’s rest. The Conservative victory is not as convincing as many would wish; nor is it a resounding disaster. A win is a win. Plans are to reintroduce his Withdrawal Bill before the end of the month and begin preparations for the EU exit on January 31. Can the Tories wrangle a trade deal by the end of 2020?

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: Saturday Night Jive, on Election Eve

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: Saturday Night Jive, on Election Eve’:

To gauge what passes for progressive humor on topical politics, one can do worse than watching each week’s cold open that precedes the credits for “Saturday Night Live.” For more than three years, its mainstay has been to heap ridicule on President Trump. Last weekend, SNL widened its net to capture Britain’s Prime Minister.

Briefly but effectively, the comedy troupe skewered Boris Johnson’s failing strategy to put distance between President Trump and ingratiate himself with a global elite that is, undeniably, inimical to Britain’s independence from the European Union.

The skit, set in a high school cafeteria, parodied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unguarded remarks, during cocktails at the recent NATO summit, concerning Mr. Trump’s overlong pressers. Messrs. Trump and Trudeau are caricatured, along with President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Britain’s Mr. Johnson.

Unfortunately for him, the American president was not SNL’s sole target. Video clips of Mr. Trudeau’s actual faux-pas simply show Boris Johnson listening intently to the Canadian premier’s account, laughing, along with other world leaders, at antics attendant at any international gathering.

Yet in SNL’s scenario, Mr. Johnson is positively gleeful in being part of the global “in-crowd” poking fun at Mr. Trump (a too-seductive temptation for conservatives in politics, academia, and the broadcast press.) Nor is SNL wholly wrong in its depiction of the on-again, off-again bromance between the US-UK leaders.

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Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: What Would Sisyphus Do?

Please see my wire from mid-week as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: What Would Sisyphus Do?’:

Brexiteers anxious to spread the good news of independence cannot deny that theirs has been an uphill battle. Sisyphus, the mythical Greek cursed to push a gigantic boulder up a mountain, has been their avatar; no sooner is the summit reached but that the burden rolls back to the bottom, forcing Sisyphus to resume his labors. Such is the cause of British independence.

Nothing so exemplifies Britons’ indifference to freedom than the drift of the election to be decided Thursday. It is fatuous to relate the sins of the Labour and Liberal Democratic parties and a host of minor political entities. All are allergic to the idea of Britain striking out as an independent sovereign nation once more, working cooperatively with the European Union but no longer subservient to an EU mandarinate held accountable to no democratic body and overseen, indulgently, by the European Court of Justice.

Instead, one looks with sorrow upon two parties who took up the Brexit cause as their own but are no less wanting. “To whom much is given, much shall be required.” Conservatives, presumably, champion limited government, free enterprise, and individual responsibility. While it would be impolitic to question the patriotism of any political party, few would doubt that Tories are synonymous with “Queen and Country” and the good old Union Jack.

Conservatives, again, gave, albeit half-heartedly, Britons the 2016 referendum that voted to exit the EU. From this point forward, Tories have far less to cheer. Governments led by Theresa May and Boris Johnson have had lacklustre deals frustrated by obstreperous parliamentarians. Nor has the general election energized an upsurge for independence.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: Once More into the Blamed Breach

Please see my wire from earlier this week as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: Once More into the Blamed Breach’:

Given the political roller-coaster ride the cause of British independence has endured for most of 2019, these several weeks of politicking before Thursday’s general election have been anticlimactic. Like most electoral campaigns, parties vie to outdo one another with promises of bounty. Conservative or Labour — with minor parties joining in — merely prepare the final bill to future taxpayers. The one difference, of course, is the fate of Brexit.

Prime Minister Johnson criss-crosses the country to the mantra “Get Brexit Done.” His leading challenger, Labourite Jeremy Corbyn, vows to renegotiate Mr. Johnson’s agreement with the European Union and then, remarkably, campaign in a second referendum to remain. Other party heads are pledged either to such a referendum “do-over” or cancelling the Article 50 exit outright. With only a handful of seats at stake for them, they have little to lose; they gamble that more outrageous platforms will stand out.

The one outlier is Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party. Kudos to Mr. Farage for making during the 1990s the UK Independence Party the pre-eminent voice for British sovereignty. That culminated in a Conservative premier, David Cameron, calling for a referendum in 2016 to placate Eurosceptic Tories. When Mr. Cameron’s successor, Theresa May, failed to deliver the referendum decision to leave the EU earlier this year, Mr. Farage formed the Brexit Party.

After the party’s singular success in the European parliamentary elections in the spring and amid anti-Brexit mayhem in Parliament — principally to the charge that Mr. Johnson’s deal is little better than Mrs. May’s agreement — Mr. Farage vowed to take his party to the polls for a “clean break Brexit.”

At first, the Brexit Party aimed to field candidates in all 650 constituencies. When fears mounted that, by challenging Conservative incumbents, Mr. Farage risked giving Remainers control of the House of Commons, he reversed himself and conceded Tory safe seats.

Yet even this strategy came under fire this weekend, when a number of leading Brexit MEPs criticized this concession as a continuing risk, by weakening Conservative challengers to Labour seats. They argued this reversed a previous commitment of contesting only constituencies where Tories were demonstrably weaker than Brexit Party candidates. Instead these Brexit MEPs urged electors to forsake Mr. Farage, marshal the independence movement behind one party, and vote Conservative.

The reasons are two-fold.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: What Would Patrick Henry Do?

Please see my mid-November wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: What Would Patrick Henry Do?’:

With the British general election having only just begun, it would be precipitate for champions of UK independence to bemoan, “Brexit, we hardly knew ye.” Yet as events continue to unfold, it is difficult to maintain the requisite “stiff upper lip” until December 12.

One need look no further for ominous signs ahead than when Prime Minister Johnson went to Buckingham Palace last Wednesday to request the dropping of the writs. “I’ve just been to see Her Majesty the Queen,” Boris announced outside No 10, “and she agreed to dissolve Parliament for an election.”

Yet a BBC reporter outside the Palace confidently told viewers that Mr. Johnson had gone “to inform” the Queen that Parliament was dissolved, as that’s how things are now done. First, the UK Supreme Court overruling the Queen’s prorogation of Parliament in September; and now, a member of the press assuring us that dissolution was no longer among her prerogative powers, either.

So who does rule in the United Kingdom? This question is at the core of the election campaign, as at the heart of Brexit. Since Prime Minister Theresa May brought her Brexit legislation before the Commons a year ago, MPs have been hell-bent on frustrating the people’s will, expressed in the 2016 referendum, to leave the European Union. Boris Johnson called that June 23 Britain’s “Independence Day,” but in reality it’s been more John Dickinson than John Adams.

America’s Founders pledged in their famous document “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” Like Mr. Dickinson who counselled that the time was not yet ripe for the colonies to separate from Britain, the Conservative government is falling back on a weak deal. As many Brexiteers revile it as revere it, as the answer to secession from the EU.

Prime Minister Johnson proclaims it, yet that fails to soothe sceptics, who fear it as not worth the parchment upon which it is written.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: Prometheus Bound

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: Prometheus Bound’:

For Brexiteers apoplectic at perpetual deferment of Britain’s exit from the European Union, I must be the bearer of sad tidings. Like Prometheus, their gut-wrenching agonies are without end. A snap election on December 12 will exacerbate their turmoil. UK independence from the EU is as elusive as ever.

Prometheus, according to Greek myth, was punished by Zeus for having given humanity the gift of fire. His fate was to be tethered to a rocky crag where each day, to excruciating pain, an eagle tore out his liver. At night the organ regenerated, and Prometheus’s torments were renewed with the rising sun.

Much as each day Parliament inflicts fresh insults to the cause of British independence. The Prime Minister’s agreement with Brussels is only the most recent assault upon the patience of the British people. Boris Johnson returned from negotiations beaming, superficially succeeding where his predecessor, Theresa May, had failed, by reopening talks and removing the reviled Irish backstop. On inspection it’s only been moved to the Irish Sea, a variant of border disorder.

Mr. Johnson’s plan perpetuates Britain’s subservience on such questions as trade, migration, fisheries, and the ongoing oversight of the European Court of Justice. For the pleasure of divorcing the EU, ante up £39 billion — a cost that could double as concocting a long-term agreement may require 3 years to hammer out. If this initial handiwork is an indication of the Government’s negotiating acumen, the future bodes increasingly ill.

True to form, MPs punted on Boris’s deal. Owing to what is known as the “surrender act,” this required the Government asking Brussels for an extension. The Prime Minister sent a counter-letter, politely asking the EU to ignore the first.

Then the Speaker of the House ruled that convention prevented a subsequent examination of the deal — a welcome diversion for the Commons. It turned its focus upon enabling legislation, gave it preliminary approval for “public consumption,” but quibbled with the Government’s timetable for speedy resolution.

Brexit then entered a state of “limbo” in parliamentary parlance, its fate in the hands of EU bureaucrats increasingly exasperated by Remainer supplication. Brussels, strapped for cash and facing an economic downturn, made all the appropriate tut-tutting remonstrances but in the end agreed to prolong Britain’s agony until the end of January 2020.

This is the third such extension since the original March 29 deadline: a provisional April 12 deadline and the now moot October 31.

This Promethean purgatory also plagues the minority Conservative government.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: Boris Becomes Charlie Brown

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: Boris Becomes Charlie Brown’:

For a workable Brexit analogy, think Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football. Try as he might, Charlie is never given a chance to kick the pigskin. Every time he comes close, Lucy snatches away the ball, leaving our protagonist to tumble on his backside. You’d think someone would come to Charlie’s defense and call Lucy out, but no one does.

The British government’s inability to advance on securing the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union was never more in evidence than today [October 22^nd] in the House of Commons. MPs toying with the fate of independence did Lucy proud. Their contempt for the Charlie Browns of Brexit Britain, came into focus as an ignoble spectacle.

Charlie Brown portrays the “everyman,” and he is every Briton — some 17.4 million — who voted in 2016 to exit the EU. Lucy represents those dissembling Remainer MPs who vehemently stand up for the rights of the people but at the moment of action, frustrate the democratic will. As for those who let this travesty continue, count the avatars.

They include the anti-Brexiteers in Brussels. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow. The UK Supreme Court, who are silent when the rules of parliamentary justice are trampled upon, provided their collective EU super-state aims are met. The press is crawling with these avatars of the Remainer movement, manufacturing new objections at every juncture.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Rule Britannia: Where’s the Nelson of Independence?

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Rule Britannia — Where’s the Nelson of Independence?’:

As opposing fleets of British and French-allied ships of war lined up for battle off the Cape of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson ordered a signal to be raised from his flag-ship, H.M.S. Victory: “England expects that every man will do his duty.”

Britons expect similar devotion to duty from their elected representatives. Given the choice in 2016 whether to remain or leave the European Union, a clear majority voted to exit and restore Britain’s independence. More than three years later, they are still waiting, as MPs and elites enthralled by the allure of the EU super-state frustrate the voice of democracy.

Last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned from Brussels with a much-heralded UK-EU withdrawal deal. Yet when it was brought before the House of Commons on Saturday for approval, Remainer MPs decided instead to postpone the vote, opting for Sir Oliver Letwin’s amendment to forgo judgement until enabling legislation was passed (MPs fearing the Government had constructed a Trojan Horse by which to abandon its own legislation and “crash out” of the EU).

This procedure clearly put the cart before the horse — ensuring the workings of a law that does not yet exist— as anti-Brexiteers will resort to any tactic to frustrate British independence.

Not that adherents of independence should take undue umbrage. For Boris’s deal is nothing more than “Brino” — Brexit in name only — Brexit under false colors, as Admiral Nelson would assess it. Brexiteers are tired of living under the “affected” authority of the EU’s gold-stars-on-a-field-of-blue pennant. They yearn to restore sovereignty to a nation over which proudly flies the historic Union Jack.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Boris Beware: Only Brexit Is Indispensable

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Boris Beware: Only Brexit Is Indispensable’:

Brexit is no equal to Paradise. I raise the point only to counter Victorian poet Robert Browning, who opined that “a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” That is to say, Brexit should be within the grasp of Britons who asked for independence from the European Union. It is not too much to ask.

Yet more than three years since the historic vote, Britain is still a member of the EU. Having failed to meet the deadline of March 29, Brexiteers are understandably underwhelmed they will actually achieve independence by the new one, October 31.

Surely, after finally cashiering the “Remainer” prime minister, Theresa May, and with two Tory leadership contenders vowing to exit on the prescribed date, “do or die,” Brexiteers can rest on their oars? Would were it so simple.

Truth is, neither candidate, Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Hunt, can be wholly trusted on the Brexit file. Not to impugn the probity of either man. Rather, that political exigencies — the hope of holding out for more favorable terms, fear of a general election, a Jeremy Corbyn “socialist” government, or Project Fear’s “economic collapse” propaganda — may induce them to waffle on Brexit’s end of October deadline or its “independence” agenda.

Breitbart columnist James Delingpole voices the collective concern over the leading protagonist.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Happy Brexit Day, Despite the Wait

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Happy Brexit Day, Despite the Wait’:

Your Diarist would be amiss were he not to wish, all and sundry, a happy “Independence Day.”

Doubtless you think either I’m having an “episode” or it’s already the Fourth of July (after the speediest fortnight in history). Well, I can assure you that we’re still in the last quarter of June.

No, I bring glad tidings on the third anniversary of Britain’s 2016 referendum vote to exit the European Union. Huzzah! If Britain and America are divided by a common language, how does one say “Yankee Doodle Dandy” in London?

The historic occasion sneaks upon even the most earnest Brexiteer almost as an afterthought. That speaks to what supporters of Britain’s independence have endured, for the past 36 months, from the machinations of the European Union.

Boris Johnson, now a leading contender to become the next Conservative leader and British prime minister, coined the “Independence Day” Brexit shorthand during the lead-up to the referendum, in which he made a huge contribution.

Until he stepped into the van, the pro-independence faction was largely about the faults of membership in the EU — the costs, the interference, the open border. It was Mr. Johnson who focused on the “sunny uplands” of liberty.

Yuuuge, as Mr. Trump might say.

At the time, it is easy to see how idealists would identify with the Second Continental Congress and the 56 delegates sweltering in the Philadelphian heat that July 1776.

The Founders were debating the merits of Richard Henry Lee’s Virginia resolution, that these thirteen “United Colonies” declare themselves “free and independent states . . . absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown,” with “all political connection . . . totally dissolved.”

Two and a half centuries later and with the shoes on different feet, the ensuing realities disclose that the Brexit euphoria was premature.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit: How to Prove Rousseau Wrong

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit: How to Prove Rousseau Wrong’:

Boris Johnson vs. Jeremy Hunt. Conservative MPs have whittled the list of contenders down to two colleagues, who will now canvas the party membership for support. The prize? To be leader of the Tories and British prime minister. Achieving both is still worth the effort. “Just.” Achieving Brexit adds ineffable lustre to each office; without Brexit, each is little more than a pale reflection of past glory.

Heady days indeed for Tory Brexiteers. Not only have they finally rid themselves of failed premier Theresa May — it lies within their power to anoint a paladin for British independence. Though neither candidate is wholly free of Brexit heresy.

Mr. Johnson lapsed when he feared it was either Mrs. May’s imperfect Withdrawal Agreement or nothing. Mr. Hunt began as a “Remainer” before converting to faith in Britain’s future outside the European Union, while never abandoning his backing for the suspect Withdrawal plan.

Tories should be grateful for the opportunity to be “wooed” for their vote. They serve as proxies for the nation-at-large. Even if Boris is the clear favorite, he should earn their trust for the honor of taking up residence at 10 Downing Street. Don’t hand it to either contender on a silver platter.

Recollect what Jean-Jacques Rousseau said 2½ centuries ago. “The English people believes itself to be free,” the Genevan philosopher observed in The Social Contract. He felt this a grave mistake. They are “free only during the election of Members of Parliament.” Once elected, Britons are “enslaved” once more and are “nothing.”

Don’t waste this chance to push hard for UK independence from the EU. Brexit fidelity is the sine qua non of British politics for the foreseeable future.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Is BoJo the Man for Brexit?

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Is BoJo the Man for Brexit?’:

Barring phenomenal bad luck on his part, Boris Johnson is the Conservative MP most likely to succeed as party leader and British prime minister. He is the favorite MP of declared parliamentary colleagues who will choose two leadership candidates to put before the membership. And among Conservative rank-and-file, BoJo is far and away their favorite Tory in Parliament.

A few short months ago, most Brexiteers would swoon at the prospect. During the 2016 referendum, BoJo was the most colorful proponent for British independence from the European Union. When “Remain” premier David Cameron resigned after the decisive vote to leave, expectations were dashed when Mr. Johnson decided not to “climb the greasy pole” to the top job.

Instead, Britain got Theresa May and the rest is a sad litany of Brexit betrayal, mendacious mandarins, and pitiful parliamentary posturing. Now it is Mrs. May’s time to leave 10 Downing street. Mr. Johnson will not let it pass him by again. As Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen puts it, “The only person who could stop Boris would be Boris.”

Therein lies the rub. Is Mr. Johnson the leader to make Britain’s independence from the European Union a reality, fulfilling the long-term promise of Brexit?

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | ‘Help Wanted’: A Leader to Win Brexit

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘ “Help Wanted”: A Leader to Win Brexit’:

Pity the Conservative members of Parliament. This month their party was decimated at local and European elections. Now Prime Minister May announces her intention to resign in early June. Tory MPs will soon be leaderless. The awesome responsibility falls to them (and party members) to choose not only a new head but premier — and while Britain’s independence hangs in the balance.

Harried Tories have little time to reflect on the necessary qualifications for such high office. They are swept up in continuing contumely, from politicians and people alike — including their Conservative colleagues. What’s a troubled Tory to do? I am reminded of the Committee for the Responsible Election of the Pope that, in August 1978 at the death of Paul VI, issued a press release in aid of cardinals about to elect the next pontiff.

To begin, Brexit has to be the next leader’s priority. There’s no shirking. Any candidate who downplays the importance of British independence from the EU doesn’t deserve to reach the starting gate.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | With May Leaving, the Hard Part of Brexit Begins

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘With May Leaving, the Hard Part of Brexit Begins’:

Can Brexiteers take any comfort in what is to date their sole consolation prize? In lieu of reveling in two months of freedom from the European Union, champions of British independence have to settle, for now, with news of the Prime Minister’s pending departure.

Theresa May’s announcement Friday came in all too true fashion, postponing her widely sought resignation from the Conservative leadership until June 7. She will remain premier until a successor is chosen, no later than the end of July.

Nothing so embodies Mrs. May’s premiership as her leaving of it — grudging, acrimonious, and interminable. Not to mention vainglorious, pompous, and disingenuous. Nevertheless, Britons can take satisfaction that she will soon be gone.

Just don’t uncork the champagne. Brexiteers have yet to secure Brexit. They’ve simply cashiered one known antagonist for many unknown aspirants to power, each awaiting his chance to climb what Disraeli dubbed the “greasy pole.”

This is, however, an opportunity for the Conservative party to begin redeeming itself. With Nigel Farage’s Brexit party polling at 37% and Tories languishing at 7%, Britain’s natural party of government has much for which to atone.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Will Trump Summit with Nigel Farage?

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Will Trump Summit with Nigel Farage?’:

How do you say “carpe diem” with a pint in one hand and a cigarette in the other? No one doubts that Nigel Farage and his Brexit party have seized the day. As Britons cast ballots for a European parliament they voted in the 2016 referendum to leave, Mr. Farage and his cohorts brilliantly capture the public’s mood: British independence delayed but not defeated.

The latest polling indicates that the Brexit party will seize the largest share of Britain’s MEPs. YouGov reports that the Brexit party, active for a mere six weeks, stands at 37%. Labor is a distant 13%, while Conservatives languish dismally at 7%.

Breaking down those numbers, Breitbart London, which has done a terrific job on this story, shows that of electors who voted Conservative in the 2017 general election, 65% are now supporting Farage’s Brexit party (only 16% remain loyal to the Tories).

As for the next national election — by law, to be held no later than May 2022 — the Brexit party’s prospects are prompting the mainstream to take notice. YouGov polling shows both Conservatives and Labor with 25% support, with a “virtual” Brexit group (no Westminster designation yet exists) at 18%.

With these numbers, it is easy to see why Crispin Blunt and other Brexiteer Tories see future collaboration with Nigel Farage as essential to delivering Brexit. Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg agrees. He is keen on forming a coalition in aid of independence. In the long-term, Mr. Rees-Mogg wants to reinvigorate conservative principles.

British sovereignty, limited government, fiscal prudence, and personal responsibility — all, incidentally, are comprised in the core of the Brexit promise.

Meanwhile, with Mr. Farage and the Brexit party commanding the headlines, other political “breaking” developments are no more than endnotes to the main event.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Could Brexit Party Join with Tories to Save Britain?

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Could Brexit Party Join with Tories to Save Britain?’:

Have UK Conservatives lost their noggins along with their wills? That Theresa May continues as the head of her party (it is fatuous to say she “leads” it) with Brexit hanging perilously in the balance, is singular proof that Tories lack for will-power.

To remain on this path to destruction — of their country, possibly; of their party, certainly — suggests they have lost contact with reason, too.

Perhaps all is not lost. Tory MP Crispin Blunt, for one, admits the inexorable: “We are going to have to come to an accommodation with the Brexit Party.”

Mr. Blunt gives voice to the blatantly obvious, but is no less brave for stating, to his colleagues, unpalatable truth. “The Conservatives as a Brexit party, being very clear about their objectives are almost certainly going to have to go into some kind of electoral arrangement with the Brexit Party.”

To wit: “Otherwise Brexit doesn’t happen.”

In a recent wire, your diarist broached the likelihood of union of the Conservative and Brexit parties. It would be no mean feat to accomplish.

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Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | New Party Rises in Britain to Rescue Brexit

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘New Party Rises in Britain to Rescue Brexit’:

The British Prime Minister is a wrecking crew of one. Theresa May scuttled Britain’s March 29 exit from the European Union. Her preferred withdrawal option places the UK in a worse position in relation to the EU. Not content to wreak havoc in foreign relations, she is effectively destroying the Conservative party.

This is a moment to harken to Newton’s third law — “to every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” It’s starting to look as if the third law applies in politics too, and is now in full force in Britain. Mrs. May has midwifed the Brexit party.

With Nigel Farage at its head, the Brexit party was formed when Britain failed to exit the EU as Britons — and Parliament — ordained. In a few short weeks it will contest the European Parliament elections and fight a polite but firm guerrilla campaign for Brexit in Brussels. Tories’ truculence at home augurs that Mr. Farage must take the fight to Westminster as well.

“We want the European election to be the first step of a massive change that re-steps entirely British politics and actually makes it look more like the country,” Mr. Farage told the London Sun. “MPs will realize that if they carry on trying to stop Brexit, they’ll lose their seats at the next General Election.”

The Brexit party’s leadership is hoping that current polling trends can be replicated at the national election in 2022. The most recent YouGov poll on MEP voting intentions has it leading with 28%, Labor at 22%, and the Tories far in the rear (with less than half Brexit party support) at 13%.

Conservative party brass shudder at the idea.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit, Beware Ides of March Portend Trouble

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit, Beware Ides of March Portend Trouble’:

“Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.” Fans of British comedy will recognize the cry from Kenneth Williams’s portrayal of Julius Caesar. Brexiteers take the sentiment personally, too — especially on this “Ides of March.” Britain’s political class has it in for British independence.

Brexit had a dismal week. First, the Prime Minister’s withdrawal plan endured its second defeat on Tuesday. Efforts were earnestly made to convince MPs that attempts to address the Irish border issue did not trap Britain in the EU customs union, but failed on the merits.

“No deal” Brexit went down the following day. This is particularly galling to purist Brexiteers, who see future trade agreements with Europe based on WTO guidelines as Britain’s only way to achieve true freedom. The Wall Street Journal, initially opposed to Brexit, acknowledged this week that a no-deal exit “may be the best outcome now.”

Brexit’s “unkindest cut of all” came Thursday, when parliamentarians voted to ask the EU for an Article 50 extension. If granted, the March 29 deadline is shattered. Independence may be fatally compromised.

Can Brexit be saved? Caesar’s augurer has as much chance of foreseeing the future of British independence as any political prognosticator. Let’s examine the entrails of this week for clues.

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.

On the Record | Brexit Backers Mock New Deal as a ‘Codpiece’

Please see my latest wire as Brexit diarist for The New York Sun, ‘Brexit Backers Mock New Deal as a “Codpiece” ’:

“In like a lamb, out like a lion.” With the Brexit deadline of March 29 in doubt, the political metaphor is obvious. As well the paradox. Theresa May entered No. 10 vowing that “Brexit means Brexit.” With 4 weeks to go, her former aide, Nick Timothy, admits the government’s narrow ambit as merely “a damage limitation exercise.” The month begins with Britain poised to become a lion of independence. Will it end still a subservient lamb?

Beyond dispute, Britons have been ill-served by their political class. With an EU exit the outcome of the 2016 referendum, MPs twice in Parliament ratified this vote to leave. Was this merely a ruse? To buy time to obfuscate Brexit and conduct negotiations so ham-fisted that abandoning the people’s choice becomes the only option?

Mr. Timothy’s perspective from inside the government is suitably pessimistic. “Many ministers, and I would include Theresa in this, struggle to see any economic upside to Brexit,” he said. From this jaundiced view of British independence, “inevitably you’re not going to be prepared to take the steps that would enable you to fully realize the economic opportunities of leaving.”

Read more . . .

Remarks are welcome on DMI’s Facebook page.

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My thanks to editor Seth Lipsky of The New York Sun.